Alice 1 Read Free Page A

and put on some good stuff.”
    We wrestled on the ground, laughing and
shrieking like a bunch of school girls. Hot tears splashed down my
cheeks. All those years in all those foster homes. Gone!
    They’re going shopping tomorrow if I want to
come. Going up to Marin where the super rich, super elegant live.
The fancy women wear designers a few times and throw ‘em away. All
that expensive stuff ends up in a Tiburon or Sausalito second-hand
store. Of course they don’t call them second-hand stores up there.
They have names like Twice Blessed and Daphnia’s Delight.
    ____________________
    Up early, hit 101, and got to Sausalito
mid-morning.
    So much fun prancing around, modeling stuff,
talking colors, style, prices.
    “No! No! No! Makes you look like a pregnant
pig.”
    “Well sure, go for it if you want to look lumpy
and dumpy.”
    “Oh yeah, that’s nice. Turn around.”
    “How can that cheesy little purse be so
expensive?”
    We got great stuff and great bargains. Yeah,
yeah, I know. I have lots, I mean lots and lots of money. Doesn’t
matter. A bargain’s a bargain no matter how rich you are. Anyway, I
like playing poor little waif. You learn a lot about people when
you look naïve and easily taken.
    Kinda weird though. Sometimes I flash to a
dirty, smelly little village on a bluff, high above a big city. Up
there I really am a poor little waif. The Krazy Kid. It’s so
real.

    VILLAGE ON THE BLUFF
    As we left Dorothy’s Dowry, a middle-aged
woman wearing a funny hat waved from across the street, and Molly
and Linda waved back. She gives me the creeps, twisted in some
really bad way. When we went into Matilda’s Treats I asked who she
was, but they don’t want to talk about her in the store.
    We were tired and happy with packages under both
arms when we went into The Purple Onion for mid-afternoon whatever
it’s called.
    Linda explained, “Betty Bradenton is the head of
a coven here in Sausalito and visits her mother in Carmel every
other week. Yeah she’s weird, but sometimes we aren’t too bright
and thought it was a good weird. So we spent a week-end with her
coven. They’re into the ‘female power’, ‘we can do anything’
trip.
    “They were Raising-the-Shield to protect a
member from a black magic attack. I decided to help out a little.
So at the critical moment when the Cone-of-Power was cast into the
little shield on the table, up it went. They just stared, and then
Betty shrieked, ‘We have the Power.’ She raised her hand and up it
went. She lowered her hand and down it went. That was probably the
happiest moment in her life. Given the almighty power of the
placebo effect, we figured there wouldn’t be any more black magic
attacks.”
    Betty came through the door and plopped down at
our table. “We figured out we need you two to raise the
Cone-of-Power. Who is she?”
    “She’s a close friend,” Molly said, not too
politely. “We’re just finishing.”
    “Stop, just for a second. Please. Don’t you
realize how important this is? We’ve found the combination that
raises the Cone-of-Power. Are you sure she’s ok? She looks like a
little twit.”
    “We really have to go.”
    “ God Damn it , don’t you get it?! I’m
asking you nicely to come join us. I won’t ask nicely a second
time!”
    Perhaps you remember I don’t take threats well.
Calling me names is also not a good idea.
    “Who the hell are you, you ugly bitch. Get your
fat ass out of here before I dump a big Cone-of-Shit on your
stupid head.” I learned a lot of fun words walking the streets
around my foster homes. My guardian didn’t care how bad the
neighborhood. He’d probably get a cut of the estate if I died.
    Her face turned a glorious purple, and with eyes
bulging, tiny breasts quivering, belly bouncing, she made great
circles in the air with her hands, and threw whatever she gathered
at me. I laughed in her face, which didn’t seem to calm her much.
She screeched a few truly vile threats, and left.
    Just